TLC’s show “Hoarding: Buried Alive” was preparing a future episode when a woman cleaning a Texas house developed a respiratory disease. The woman tested positive for hantavirus. The home in the Houston suburb of the Woodlands has been quarantined since Friday. Now authorities are worried that the Hantavirus may affect the surrounding community. Click below to read more.
A woman cleaning out a Texas home for a future episode of TLC’s “Hoarding: Buried Alive” developed a respiratory disease that county officials believe has been caused by hantavirus.
The home in the Houston suburb of the Woodlands has been under quarantine since Friday. A woman who had been in the home tested positive for the disease and is now recovering, with medications after a stay in the hospital, according to ABC News affiliate ABC13. A sheriff’s deputy has remained outside the home all weekend to keep everyone a safe distance away.
A second test on the woman by the state health department will determine whether she does in fact have hantavirus, according to ABC13.
Between the cleanup crew and the film crew, as many as 30 people had been in and out of the home over the past two weeks. The producers of the reality series refused to comment on the situation.
Infection with the hantavirus comes from inhaling or ingesting particles of mice droppings, or urine, and has a 40 percent mortality rate.
“Hantavirus is a disease that’s carried by rodents, and when you go through processes like cleaning the home, sweeping, vacuuming, that sort of thing, it goes into the air,” said Montgomery County Medical Director Dr. Mark Escott.
Escott told ABC13 that neighbors should be on the lookout for rodents.
